Article: 2013 Driver Line-ups, News & Rumours | Formula one

Im happy with that Pic is a good driver and I dont think he is a pay one either. This maybe Petrovs seat though but I think Guido van der Garde will be the other driver

 

It's good to see that maybe Marussia isn't the career killer I thought it was. Good on Pic, I felt he deserved to be on the grid next year, but I can't help but think it is a step back.

 

Will miss Heikki.

 

The driver line-ups are getting sorted so much quicker than last year, with no real surprises coming up for the remaining seats. Great silly season early on, and then it kinda died down.

 

Money talks and talent walks.

 

'Honda is fair with its rivals, unlike Ferrari'

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/186357/1/honda_is_fair_with_its_rivals_unlike_ferrari.html

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Shuhei Nakamoto, vice president of Honda Racing Corporation and formerly a senior member of the company's ill-fated F1 project, claims Honda is always fair with its MotoGP rivals - unlike Ferrari in F1.

Honda is the dominant MotoGP participant in terms of resources, contribution and history. Yamaha and Ducati are the other current premier-class manufacturers.

During a joint interview alongside HRC president Tetsuo Suzuki for LCR Honda's Inspire magazine, Nakamoto pointed out the effort Honda makes to support the sport - especially in the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.

“Personally, I love both MotoGP and F1 in the same quantities. I am very proud to work at HRC because our company is able to support competitions and offer a great and lasting contribution to the future of the motorcycle racing world.

“Establishing the Moto3 class and providing engines for the Moto2 class are good examples for how much we can do.

“At F1, Ferrari has absolute authority. To be honest, we suffered a lot in that period. In MotoGP, in fact, Honda is in a similarly strong position but we like to be fair with our rivals. If we were to use our force, the MotoGP race would lose its appeal.”

Nakamoto was then asked, 'So Honda doesn't behave like Ferrari in the MotoGP, trying to make a biased racing environment?'

“That's correct,” he replied. “However so many people believe that Honda do whatever Honda wants! In fact they bash us about that frequently!

“Think about it like this - Honda provides the Moto2 engines without making a profit. It set up the Moto3 class to hold back the soaring spending of the GP125 class budget. And in the MotoGP class we are trying to keep fair regulations.”

Nakamoto has been a staunch defender of the need for MotoGP to retain is level of technical sophistication, in the face of cost-cutting proposals, resulting in a compromise being reached for 2014 whereby manufacturers will retain their own software within the new control ECU.

“I believe motorcycle fans love to follow the racing to see the advances in motorcycle technology, not just to witness the battles between riders on the track,” said Nakamoto.

Honda's Dani Pedrosa finished second in the 2012 riders' championship to Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo.
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Would have been interesting to hear more details.

 

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/11/14121.html

Infiniti to become Red Bull Racing title sponsor

Red Bull Racing have agreed a four-year extension of their partnership with Infiniti, the premium automotive brand from Japan, which first began in March 2011. The increased agreement will see Infiniti become title partner from 2013, meaning Red Bull Racing’s team name will become Infiniti Red Bull Racing from the start of next season.

As part of the expanded partnership, Infiniti’s involvement with the team will evolve from being purely commercial to a relationship that is more technologically focused, as the two companies will join together on a number of engineering and development projects.

Johan de Nysschen, President of Infiniti said: “While our first 24-months have been very beneficial to both parties, our new increased relationship will bring increased advantages to Infiniti and Red Bull Racing. As title sponsor, Infiniti Red Bull Racing will help us garner even more worldwide exposure for our brand, products and technology.”

Red Bull Racing’s team principal Christian Horner added: “Red Bull Racing and Infiniti have been working on a number of initiatives since the start of our relationship in 2011. During that time, Infiniti has demonstrated significant technical prowess and I’ve been impressed by the depth of the wider engineering capabilities of the Nissan Motor Company. In terms of marketing, Infiniti has leveraged their involvement with Red Bull Racing and Formula One extremely effectively to become much better known in a short space of time. These two attributes make Infiniti the ideal title and technical partner for Red Bull Racing.”

Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer, commented: “Formula One presents immense design and engineering challenges on a daily basis. Having a committed technical partner like Infiniti gives us a great platform for working together on technical projects, such as the Energy Recovery Systems for the 2014 season.”

 

Barrichello in talks with Caterham:http://www.crash.net/f1/news/186428/1/reports_link_barrichello_to_caterham_talks.html

 

Does anyone think Di Resta could be dropped after his performance today? Well his performances in general in the 2nd half of the year!

 

No. He's a good driver, and he's had a decent season all told.

 

Yeah a poor end to the season, but despite the jokes on here he's decent. His season was pretty good up until Singapore.

 

He has been drastically outperformed by Hulk though and seeing 1 car leading the race whilst Di Resta is trundelling round in the teens is a significant performance difference.

 

Hulk has vastly improved! He is a one to watch for the future that's for sure.... think Germany will have it's own national duo in one team maybe one day...

 

McLaren really should have taken Hulk instead of Perez.

 

It was very hasty. They missed out on what the hulk was going to show today.

 

If Rosberg fails and Merc improves then I'm sure they'd love a Hulk/Ham pairing

 

Hulk was dominating everyone today. He's phenomenal in the rain.

 

Hulk is an F1 hero in-waiting

 

Redbull to snap him up in '14???

 

I wouldn't like to see him as Seb's bitch. And Silver would be really jealous. Lucky Sauber to have him for next year though; I think McLaren missed a trick there. Actually, if Rosberg doesn't get cracking, I'd like to see him paired with Lewis at Mercedes. Still, Hulk's probably better off at Sauber next year, eh?